A Terrible Privilege
by donnag76
Summary: Pepper pays a visit after the Battle for New York. Post-Avengers. I don't own anything, sadly. Marvel does. Reviews are wanted and welcome. Happy reading!


**A Terrible Privilege**

Bruce Banner walked nervously around the laboratory. Everything seemed so state-of-the-art and high tech, he was afraid to go near it, much less touch it, in fear he would break something he was completely incapable of paying to have replaced. He ran his hand along the surface of the huge worktable that sat in the middle of the room. If _he_ could break it, the other guy would _obliterate_ it. The entire room was one big price tag. Maybe he should have rejected Stark's offer for a place to stay. Too many things could go wrong. Then again, he didn't have much of a choice. He couldn't go back to India. He knew that the minute he left with Natasha Romanoff. That part of his life was over. There were poor people all over the world, though. Tony Stark had been quick to point out this fact. He could help as many people as he wanted, just use the R&amp;D floors of the Tower as a kind of home base.

Bruce thought about his benefactor. He'd watched Tony Stark work in the lab on the hellicarrier. There was no questioning his ability or his intelligence. He manipulated the complicated machinery like they were some type of video game. Oh, he had an attitude, but, he also had a right to be cocky. He was a scientific genius. Bruce had read about Stark for years, followed his progress on the technological front. He watched videos from the S.H.I.E.L.D. databanks and read their official files. Words like "volatile" and "self-absorbed" had Bruce dreading the meeting, no matter how smart Tony Stark may be. That wasn't how he would describe the man who had given him shelter, though. He wondered more than once what made the difference.

His thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door. He had no idea who all knew he was there, so Bruce half-expected to see an armed security guard. Then again, security guards wouldn't knock. "Mr. Stark said it was okay for me to be here," he said as he turned around. He looked at his visitor. She was tall, dressed casually in jeans and a white t-shirt. She wore her red hair up in a ponytail, giving her a youthful look.

"He's the one who told me where to find you, Dr. Banner." She walked to where he was and extended her hand. "I'm Pepper Potts."

"Pleased to meet you, Miss Potts," he said, shaking her hand, "and, please, call me Bruce."

"Only if you call me Pepper," she replied with a smile.

"I can do that." Bruce instantly liked her. "Pepper" had been about every third word out of Tony's mouth on the ride from giving back the Tesseract to the Tower. "Tony talked so much about you, just in the short time we were together. It's nice to put a name with the face."

"Are you finding everything you need? I know settling in can be challenging sometimes."

"As far as I know, I'm good." Bruce looked around the room. "The biggest challenge may be getting used to somewhere this big. My place in Calcutta could fit in one corner of the bathroom."

"Well, that's Tony. Go big or go home." Pepper waved her hand at the equipment. "You know, I authorized the purchase of most of this stuff and I have no idea what it does."

"I _do_ know what it does and I'm afraid to touch it." They both chuckled. Bruce leaned against the giant table and crossed his arms. "Something tells me, though, that you didn't come here to discuss Mass Spectrometers and isotopes."

"I didn't. I wanted to thank you."

"Thank me?"

"For saving Tony."

"Oh."

"What you did was amazing."

"I...I didn't do anything." Bruce removed his glasses and polished them nervously with his sleeve.

"I saw you. Tony was dropping like a rock. You jumped and grabbed him mid-air."

"That wasn't me. That was..."

"The Hulk? Maybe on the outside," Pepper countered. "If I have learned anything from being with Tony all these years, it's that looks can be _very_ deceiving."

"I'm afraid this is more than looks. He's...who I am."

"No, he's not. You have gotten so used to telling yourself that, you've come to believe it." She saw the puzzled look Bruce gave her. "Who you _are_ is a man who saw a friend in trouble and reacted, without thinking, because it was the right thing to do."

"Tony called it a 'terrible privilege'... using what had happened to you to benefit others."

"I'm glad that you were given that privilege. You saved the life of the man I love. For that, 'thank you' seems horribly inadequate, but, I will say it. Thank you, Bruce."

Bruce saw the sincerity and conviction in her eyes. He replaced his glasses, before replying. "You're welcome, Miss...Pepper," he corrected. "While I may not want to accept it, in a way, he was right."

"Just never let him hear you say that or you will never hear the end of it." Pepper said with a smile. She pulled a card from the back pocket of her jeans. "If you ever need anything…"

"Thank you. If you ever need to rant over our friend, the Mad Scientist…"

"Now _that_ is a terrible privilege." She glanced at her watch. "Speaking of…I need to go check and make sure he's not reprogrammed anything important while I've been gone. Don't be a stranger, okay?"

"I won't." Bruce watched her leave as unobtrusively as she'd entered. He tapped the business card against his palm before sliding it into his shirt pocket. He now knew what made the difference in Tony Stark. She just walked out his door. He also knew he'd made a new friend and there was nothing terrible about that.

**Author's notes: I was inspired to write this after my annual birthday viewing of THE AVENGERS. Thanking Bruce was something that just seemed like such a "Pepper" thing to do. I think I even managed to surprise the BFF and nancyozz with this one. I hope you like it. I'm slowly but surely attempting to write in some of the other members. Maybe I didn't screw it up too badly. Please let me know what you think. Reviews are awesome. PEPPERONY FOREVER!**


End file.
